Beauty and the Beast

Justin’s POV

I’m such a fucking screw up! What the fuck is wrong with me? I’m not seriously scared of that prick, Ellie on the other hand…maybe a little. They were right; she’d believe them over me. Not that I cared that much, but I was going to be living here and I wanted to make my life as easy as I could.

So why on earth was this bothering me as much as it was? I knew everything would go to shit when I got here, but I just didn’t imagine it being for these reasons. I thought I’d hate every one and just want to go home. However, that is not the case at all. Not that I don’t want to go home; because I do, but not for the reasons I thought.

I heard a faint knock at my door, before it opened to reveal Maria, stood timidly in the door way. We hadn’t spoken much since the prank she and Lyric had pulled on me. Not that I blamed her, but it gave me an excuse to avoid talking about Adam. I didn’t know if she knew about Ellie and Adam or not. I hoped not, but I didn’t know and part of me preferred living in ignorance.

“Hey, sorry to intrude; I was just wondering if you and I could talk for a moment?” She was so shy and timid. I suddenly felt guilty; did she feel this way because of me?

“Yeah of course we can Mer, come in!” I smiled and gestured her to come in and sit down. I felt awkward offering her the bed to sit on, but there wasn’t really anywhere else to sit.

“I just wanted to talk to you about Adam…” she seemed hesitant and I knew why, she was worried I was going to snap at her like I had Lyric this afternoon. “It’s just you never did tell me why you hit him that first time, and I have a feeling it has something to do with today.” God that girl was intuitive. I wasn’t sure what to tell her though. Did I tell her the truth in the hope that she’d believe me? Or would she just call me a liar? I knew she didn’t like Adam but Ellie was her best friend and if I told her about today she might think that I was lying about everything. She’d go and ask Ellie who would tell her I was lying and then her and Adam would make my life hell, and it was already hell enough without that added on top. Then again Lyric deserved to know and was I being selfish keeping it from her?

I hesitated a moment before finally residing on telling her, at least about the first night. “Maria, you can’t tell Lyric. She won’t believe me and it’ll cause more problems than it is worth.” I lied. “That first night when I hit him, it wasn’t for nothing. He’d been being an ass all night, but when he started talking about Lyric, I just couldn’t contain it anymore.” I was running my hands through my hair, pulling at it, in frustration. Even thinking about what he had said made me angry, especially now with what I know about him and Ellie.

Maria was looking at me in understanding, her eyes were soft and I knew I could trust her. “What did he say about Lyric?” She asked softly. She didn’t want to push me and I appreciated that.

I paused a moment, wondering if I should reword it. I didn’t really want to repeat what he said but in the end I decided it was best to just tell her the truth, that way she was more likely to understand why I got so mad. “He was talking about how easy she would be and he was betting that he’d have her in bed by the end of the week, and then he asked me if I thought she was a screamer and I lost my shit. It made me so angry, you don’t fucking talk about girls that way, you don’t fucking talk about anyone like that!” I was getting so mad, I wanted to hit something. Maria had backed away slightly in fear, and I saw the look in her eye begging me to calm down and I just couldn’t stay mad any more. She didn’t blame me or hate me, she was just scared of me and I didn’t want her to be scared of me. I’d never hit a girl before and I never would. I’d been brought up right. My mom was the only person in my life for so long. I’d been raised to respect and cherish women, not hurt them. “I’m sorry Mer, I didn’t mean to scare you, he just makes me so mad.” I sighed, sinking down onto my bed.

“It’s okay; I was just scared you were going to hurt yourself. I don’t think we should tell Lyric…” She admitted tentatively. “I just think, she won’t believe us. She’s so blind to anything at the moment; I’m not sure how she’d take it. I have a feeling he’s cheating on her, but I don’t want to tell her because, well I honestly don’t think she’d believe me. I think she’d hate me if I tried to tell her that, and I have no proof.” It took everything I had not to blurt out that she was right. I wanted to tell her so badly. If I could tell anyone it was her. I hadn’t even told Rudy the complete truth, I was too scared he’d hate me and beat the crap out of me. I knew it was wrong to keep it from her, from everyone, but I didn’t know who to tell. I didn’t know how to tell them. It was just something I’d have to deal with on my own for a while.

“I agree. I’m not her favourite person at the moment and I don’t think she’d believe what I had to say. She’d probably think I was lying and I’m sure he’d be able to come up with some more believable lie that would only make her hate me more and I’m not up for that right now. I think she’d just going to have to learn the truth on her own.” I hated admitting it, but I couldn’t see her believing us any other way. She’d have to work it out on her own, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t help her along in finding out…

Maria was looking at me curiously. “You’ve just had an idea; what is it?” She asked inquisitively.

“You think he’s cheating right? All we have to do is prove it to her. She just has to see it for herself...right? Well what if we managed to get her to catch him in the act somehow…?” I suddenly felt like a genius.

Maria on the other hand seemed slightly more hesitant. “Justin, have you never watched ‘Mean Girls’? I don’t think it’s that easy…”

“Mean Girls has a happy ending, she ends up with Eric Samuels and everyone is happy.” I could see what she meant though. There was a risk that it could backfire, or that she’d hate us still. But it had to be worth the risk right? I couldn’t tell her, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t help her find out.

“I’ll help you Justin, but I’m not even sure he is cheating. How about we find out if he is first?” I wanted so desperately to tell her everything so that we could get my plan underway, but something told me not to. Something told me that if Maria knew that I knew she’d be angry. So I chose to let her find out on her own. So I agreed. “Right well I had better go find Kayleigh, she needs my help with English coursework and I told her I’d only be gone five minutes and I’ve been gone for half an hour.” I nodded and let her out my room before lying down on my bed and thinking about everything that had just happened, and how on earth I was going to her to catch him in the act. Would it even be worth it? And why the hell did I care so much?